80 OUTLINES OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



eventually to become a landowner, it does not follow that farms thus 

 acquired would be farms of profitable size or that the percentage of 

 farm tenancy would decline." Does the lowering of interest rates 

 effect an immediate improvement in the condition of borrowers on 

 land security ? Does it produce an equal benefit to later purchasers of 

 land? Explain. Does stimulation of effort to become landowners 

 seem likely to have the effect of increasing small holdings? What 

 does farm-management study indicate as to the relative productivity 

 of such farms ? 



8. "It is inevitable that lower rates for farm mortgages will result 

 in greatly enhanced farm values. And the lower rates being brought 

 about by legislative enactment, and not firmly based upon better 

 crops and improved conditions on the farm, their value will be arti- 

 ficial and inflated. And where the man in moderate circumstances 

 is able now to accumulate enough money to make the down pay- 

 ment on a contract, if land values increased 50 per cent, or doubled, 

 his payment would not be large enough to be acceptable. Even 

 though he were able to purchase, he would have increased interest to 

 pay on the inflated price, as well as additional principal. " Is this 

 a valid objection to the federal farm-loan system ? Explain. 



ADDITIONAL REFERENCES 



Her rick and Ingalls, Rural Credits. 



Morman, Principles of Rural Credits (includes bibliography). 



Moult on, Principles of Money and Banking, Part II, chap. ix. 



Putnam, The Land Credit Problem. 



Robins, The Farm Mortgage Handbook. 



Wolff, Co-operative Credit for the United States. 



Stewart, An Analysis of Rural Banking Conditions in Illinois. 



Cameron, The Torrens System. 



Kemmerer, " Agricultural Credit in the United States," American Economics 



Review, II, No. 4. 

 The National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, Report of Third 



Annual Session. 

 Hibbard and Robotka, " Farm Credit in Wisconsin," Bulletin 247, Wisconsin 



Experimental Station. 

 United States Investor, November 11, 19 16. 

 Publications ot tne Federal Farm Loan Board. 

 Reports of the Federal Reserve Board. 

 Farmers' Bulletin 654, "How Farmers May Improve Their Personal Credit. " 



TOPICS FOR SPECIAL PAPERS 



Causes of the Increase in Farm Mortgages Prior to 1890. 

 The Relation between Farm Mortgages and Free Silver. 

 The Populist Movement. 



